Money squeeze: When times are tough, frugal is cool

Thursday

Coupons are back in vogue, thanks to rising food and gas prices, and young bloggers dedicated to turning thrift into a game and removing its old-lady stigma.

Sara Brady used to think her father was a crazy old fogy to fuss with coupons, and hide his off-brand bargain groceries from his wife in brand-name bottles and jars.

Then Brady bought a house and had a baby. Responsibility ate up the family fun budget. So the 26-year-old Pennsylvania mom started playing a coupon game to stretch her dollars – and on a good day, she even makes money buying stuff she needs anyway.

She used to hear loud sighs behind her at the register when she pulled out her wad of coupons, but no more in this tight economy, Brady said.

“You have to kind of be cheap to make ends meet,” said Brady, who blogs about her tricks on bethriftylikeus.blogspot.com [http://bethriftylikeus.blogspot.com]. “Who wants to pay more on groceries when you could have money to go out and see a movie, go shopping for clothes – do something more fun with that money? It is becoming cooler to tighten up the budget around certain un-fun things.”

Coupons are back in vogue, thanks to rising food and gas prices, and young bloggers dedicated to turning thrift into a game and removing its old-lady stigma.

Consumers redeemed 2.6 billion coupons in 2007, reversing a 16-year slump that dates back to the early 1990s. Back in the recession of 1992, people used 7.2 billion, according to Coupon Info Now [http://www.couponinfonow.com].

Not only does it feel like a recession again, but household budgets have been squeezed so much in recent months that they’re groaning. Food prices in April were an average 5 percent higher than a year earlier, with milk and bread about 14 percent higher than last year, according to the Labor Department. Gas prices have almost reached a frightening $4 average and continue to climb, roughly doubling since 2006.

Seems coupon use goes hand in hand with unemployment trends. As joblessness rises, so does coupon redemption, according to analysis by Coupon Info Now.

A February survey of U.S. shoppers revealed that 67 percent of those questioned said they’d be more likely to shop with coupons during a recession [http://www.i-com.com/aboutus_news_detail.asp?pid=68]. And coupons aren’t just for people who don’t make much money. About the same number of people who earn less than $50,000 turn to coupons in tough times as those who earn more than $50,000.

The biggest jump in coupon use occurred in the 18- to 34-year-old age group.

An April study, “Tightwads and Spendthrifts,” by the Journal of Consumer Research [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jcr/current], found that people under 30 were more likely to pinch pennies than spend them. Only respondents over 70 were more likely than the young adults to be tightwads, according to the analysis.

Even a few years ago, moms – typically the clippers – who worked outside the home didn’t find coupons worth the effort, according to a 2001 study. But now, young moms worry more about saving a buck than about appearing old-fashioned.

“Certainly, when you think of the word frugal, you think of old people,” said Ron Wilcox, a professor at the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia, and author of “Whatever Happened to Thrift? Why Americans Don’t Save and What to Do About It” [http://www.darden.edu/html/direc_detail.aspx?styleid=2&id=4369]. “People tend to get frugal whenever really bad things happen in a country, whether that be depression or war.”

The country is in a funk right now, he said, as young people raised in fairly prosperous times confront rising commodity costs, housing instability and ongoing wars.

“When you come to look at optimism in a country vs. pessimism, pessimistic people and countries tend to save more money,” Wilcox said. “In an economy and in a country, the more bad things that happen, the more there’s just kind of a negative aura about things. That impacts people’s judgment about whether they’re going to spend and save money much like a depression would.”

The good news? Bargains abound for those willing to take a little time to look for them. Money actually can be made combining rebates, special discounts for club card holders and buy-one-get-one promotions offered by stores, Brady said.

She scans Sunday circulars for drugstores such as CVS, Walgreen’s and Rite-Aid, looking for deals, and making note of anything that ends up free after a rebate. She cuts coupons and tries to match them up to the deals, spending about an hour and a half a week. And then the fun begins.

By the time Brady had finished buying a Tums Quick Pak at CVS recently, she was up some $6.69 for a product her mother uses frequently. Brady paid $4.69 for the antacids, and got $4.69 in immediate Extra Care Bucks good for her next purchase at CVS. She also used a $2 manufacturers coupon at the register, then sent away for a rebate worth the original purchase price.

And she can show you how to make money using coupons. So can her fellow bloggers, such as The Centsible Sawyer [http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/2008/05/cvs-superstars.html], and people who post on Hot Coupon World [http://www.hotcouponworld.com], who refuse to buy staples such as toothpaste and deodorant when they’re not free.

“I just love to shop,” Brady said. “When I’m doing the CVS stuff, I’m saving money and getting the shopping bug out of me, and I’m not spending a lot of money.”

GateHouse National News Reporter Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@gatehousemedia.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.